Geo-board

I had an idea to make my own geo-board but I solicited Steve & Sherri's help.  They came down today and we got to work.   A little bit of gluing, a few screws, and 77 nuts and bolts later we had an amazing Geo-Board.  Thank you Steve for doing a lot of pre-measuring and cutting and thank you Sherri for helping to assemble it.  I know the boys will have lots of fun with it.  

 Adding the glue.

 Putting in the nuts and bolts.  

 Having fun with all the rubber bands.  Not only did we make shapes, it became an instrument, a maze for cars and anything else we can think of.  

Give it a go!

Random...

Here are just a bunch of random pictures that I think anyone will enjoy!

How Toby sleeps every night, all curled up.

 Max cut his eye Monday night, it bled forever but he's tough.  He also passed a kidney stone the next day.  

 Toby discovering sand, lucky for me he did not put any in his mouth.  

Emmeric and I went to a preschool visit, he found his name outside of his classroom.  He is so excited to go on Sept. 6th.  

 My three boys locked away in a tower, ok not really but sometimes I'd like to do that.  :)

Downtown D.M. they have this water stream right by the sidewalk.  After a picnic lunch I told the boys they could get wet.  An hour later they were soaked and I was ready to go.  

Toby watching the big boys play, he gets more excited just watching them rather than joining in.  

Traveling home after the stream in their wet underwear finishing their Jimmy John's sandwiches.  

Mr. & Mrs. Mader

 Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being the Maid of Honor at my cousin Ashley's wedding. She married the man of her dreams Brian. They had an amazing ceremony and a beautiful day to celebrate. 

 The beautiful Bride and her handsome Groom.

The Bride and I.  It was such a fun day and night; I know they will have a lifetime of happiness.

My handsome boys and I.  Emmeric & Max were also ring bears, they did awesome!

Iowa State Fair

We have the privilege of living about 2 miles from State Fair so we got to go 3 times this year.  It was a lot of fun, besides the standards we did the big slide, the sky glider, saw all the big animals, the fish, the cars, army trucks, free samples, honey lemonade, varied industries building and lots of people watching.  

The concrete ice cream cones around the fair, they look good enough to eat!

Going down the slide again for the second time.  Emmeric went by himself and his butt was off the slide over each bump.

 Eating foot-long corn dogs.  They each finished the whole thing.  

Riding the sky glider with Dad.  

Emmeric & Max in the big Clogs, at the Pella Days booth.  

Reiman Gardens

2 weeks ago the 3 boys and I met my mom at the Reiman Gardens in Ames.  It was absolutely gorgeous and a lot of fun.  They were having a special display of LEGO made sculptures, the boys thought is was great!  They were amazing, the biggest sculpture was a bison made of over 47,000 pieces.  

 In front of the big butterfly.  We also went in the butterfly wing, it was so beautiful.  Full of tons and tons of butterflies.  One even landed on Max's head!

 Max's favorite sculpture, looks just like Dad's real one.  

 Hummingbird.  

 Me & Gnomeo, the biggest concrete gnome in the world.   

Grandma Nancy and two boys in front of the huge pinwheel inside the botanical dome.  

Half Birthday!

Toby turned 6 months yesterday!  It has been a wonderful 6 months, we made it past that oh so tired first few months, that transition to real food and craziness to managing 3 kids.  Toby is for the most part a really good, mellow, happy baby.  He can roll over and over, has started to army crawl and can sit up for a little bit.  He loves to chew on anything especially spoons and his fist.  He sucks his thumb when he's tired.  Smiles if you smile at him and loves when Emmeric & Max talk to him.  We love you Tobster, can't wait to see how you are in the next 6 months.

Rock Climbing

We went to Sleepy Hollow with Craig and Jamie today to play mini-golf but seeing that they had a rock wall, we knew Emmeric would want to try so he gave it a spin.

 Getting ready for the climb.  Dad decided to lift some "weights."

 Getting started, took him a bit to figure out his footing.  

 It was 30 feet in the air, he tried to get the bell at the top for me.  

He made it about 20 feet, lost his footing and decided to come down.  He wants to come back and try again soon!

Going for a ride

Max decided to take Toby for a ride in his dump truck.  He was very gentle and very sweet while pushing him.

David & Goliath

The boys are acting out David and Goliath.  Emmeric is the Giant Goliath with his sword saying "no one can beat me" while Max is small David with his little pouch of stones.  He says "I can beat you, because God is on my side."  They liked to take turns "killing" the giant and being the "winner."  

Maxie being the strong Goliath.

We each found 5 stones and made little pouches out of felt to carry them in. 

Call Me Maybe

Max is obsessed with this song.  He sings it all the time and constantly requests it in the car, at home and anywhere we are.  He sings it way better than the video but it's a small glimpse into how cute he sounds!

A change.

We took the bunk beds apart on Monday.  I was kind of sad but Max decided he didn't want to sleep on top and he promised he would stay in his bed (and sleep on the floor like Emmeric) if we took them apart.  We will try it, if it becomes a problem they can just go back together.  

Bean Bags

We now have a set of bean bag boards courtesy of Papa Steve, we broke them in last night.  The boys loved to toss the bags, climb them and everything else they could think of.  Thanks for making them Steve!

 Max making it in the hole.  

A friendly game...for now.

Pickle Boats

Uncle Andy had some too big cucumbers to use for anything so he brought them to us so we could make pickle boats.  I can remember doing this as a child.  It was fun to scoop out all the seeds and make them hollow.  The boys loved putting them in the water, pushing them underwater and still seeing them float.  

 Max getting out all those seeds.

 Emmeric scooping and scooping.

Look at all those boats!

Union Park

We had a GREAT Sunday. Included in the day was a trip to Union park for their children's day full of free carousel rides, blow ups, free food, playgrounds, tons of freebies and lots of fun.  We're glad we went and we're glad Andy and Whitney joined us!

 Max picked this horse because he had a gun on his side.  

 Max, Dad and Uncle Andy

 Emmeric on the giraffe.

 Emmeric, Dad and Aunt Whitney

 Whitney and all of her cuteness!

 Of course we had to do some jump houses.  

 Emmeric going down the HUGE rocket slide. 

 Max enjoying that slide action.

 Toby on Firecracker, he literally held on to the pole the whole time, it was cute!

Toby and Mom.